Oz cablers pact for sat service

Foxtel joining Cable & Wireless, Austar with DTH delivery

By MARK WOODS

SYDNEY -- The abattoir commonly known as Australia's money-losing feevee sector has taken another step down the road of restructuring: The three main cablers have agreed to cooperate to deliver a DTH satellite service.

The deal means that Rupert Murdoch's cabler Foxtel will for the first time offer a satellite service in 1999, joining Cable & Wireless Optus and United Intl. Holdings' rural pay TV service Austar on the B3 Hotbird satellite.

"Sharing satellite delivery infrastructure is a sensible decision (as) the establishment of separate satellite delivery platforms would have been commercially irresponsible," C&W Optus chief Chris Anderson said.

Austar topper John Porter added, "The utilization of common infrastructure is a win for consumers as it eliminates duplication of a costly delivery system and enables the providers to continue to compete aggressively on product, price and customer service."

The pact does not end channel exclusivity among the carriers, who will have separately encrypted services on the satellite. But it still represents a dose of realpolitik for an industry that spent $4.5 billion rolling out two competing cable systems past 2.5 million urban homes.

The deal also means that the nearly 3 million urban homes not presently served by cable will be offered feevee for the first time since accident-prone satcaster Australis Media's Galaxy TV (which held exclusive urban satellite licenses) collapsed in May.

As the overdue feevee revamp gathers steam, all carriers are attempting to renegotiate expensive Hollywood supply deals, which were inked in a distinctly more competitive environment four years ago. In coming weeks, Austar is expected to become the first carrier to end exclusivity and air all movie channels.

Kerry Packer recently stopped supporting Optus and took 25% of Foxtel, restoring an old team that disintegrated four years ago and caused $2.5 billion in losses and the demise of Galaxy, Century Communications' rural pay TV service East Coast TV and channel provider Australian Information Media.

Foxtel leads the feevee race with nearly 400,000 subscribers, followed by Austar's 290,000, Optus' 200,000 and ethnic chan-nel carrier TARBS with 70,000.